METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR IDENTIFYING SAFE HAVENS FOR HAZARDOUS TRANSPORTS

• US 20070024468A1
• Filed: 09/11/2006
• Published: 02/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HNTB Holdings Limited
• Original Assignee: HNTB Holdings Limited
• Inventors: Kavanagh, Alex, Siegel, Jeffrey, Marros, Robert, Quandel, Charles, Morrison, Douglas, Herman, Glen, Moore, W.
• Granted Patent: US 8,190,466 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/968
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0635 Risk analysis of enterprise or organisation activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

The identification of safe havens for hazardous material transports is provided. Safe havens include locations at which a hazardous material transport is less susceptible to an event that may result in a hazardous material release and/or a location at which the impact of a hazardous material release is reduced. When an event occurs indicating that hazardous material transports should be moved to safe havens, the locations of hazardous material transports are determined. Safe havens may then be determined for each hazardous material transport. In some cases, safe havens may be selected from a group of predetermined locations designated as safe havens. In some cases, locations may be dynamically designated as safe havens for hazardous material transports after the occurrence of an event. The hazardous material transports are then moved to the selected safe havens, thereby reducing their susceptibility to events and/or minimizing the impact of an event that involves a hazardous material transport.

Claims

1. A method for identifying safe havens for hazardous material transports, the method comprising:

gathering context sensitive information associated with at least one linear corridor;

assessing security risks of the at least one linear corridor using at least a portion of the context sensitive information; and

identifying one or more locations along the at least one linear corridor as one or more safe havens for hazardous material transports based at least in part on the assessed security risks of the at least one linear corridor.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

surveying at least one linear corridor, wherein surveying the at least one linear corridor includes collecting survey data of the at least one linear corridor;

combining the survey data and the context sensitive information; and

wherein assessing security risks of the at least one linear corridor comprises assessing security risks using the combined survey data and context sensitive information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the context sensitive information includes information selected from a group comprising:

demographic information, transportation information, environmental information, and corridor asset information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein identification of one or more locations along the at least one linear corridor as one or more safe havens is based at least one part on context sensitive information associated with each of the one or more locations.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the context sensitive information associated with each of the one or more locations includes information selected from the group comprising:

population density;

proximity of police stations;

proximity of fire stations;

proximity of military installations;

proximity of public waterways that may be affected by hazardous material releases;

proximity of utilities;

proximity of hazardous material storage;

security;

information indicative of a capability to receive hazardous material; and

information indicative of a capacity to receive one or more hazardous material transports.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises storing information associated with the one or more safe havens in one more data stores.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the information associated with each of the one or more safe havens comprises at least one of an identification of the safe haven, a location of the safe haven, and a characteristic of the safe haven.

8. A method for providing a safe haven for a hazardous material transport in response to an event, the method comprising:

providing a data store including data representative of one or more safe havens, the data including, for each safe haven, one or more characteristics of the safe haven including a location of the safe haven;

determining a location of the hazardous material transport;

selecting one of the one or more safe havens based at least in part on the location of the hazardous material transport; and

moving the hazardous material transport to the selected safe haven.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more characteristics of each safe haven stored by the data store further comprise at least one of a location of the safe haven, a capability of the safe haven to receive one or more types of hazardous materials, and a capacity of the safe haven to receive one or more hazardous material transports.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises determining one or more characteristics of the hazardous material transport.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein selecting one of the one or more safe havens further comprises comparing the one or more characteristics of the hazardous material transport against the one or more characteristics of the one or more safe havens.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein selecting one of the one or more safe havens further comprises assessing risk associated with a route between the location of the hazardous material transport and at least one of the one or more safe havens.

13. A method for providing a safe haven for a hazardous material transport in response to an event, the method comprising:

determining a location of the hazardous material transport;

accessing information associated with one or more linear corridors, wherein the information includes context sensitive information associated with the one or more linear corridors;

assessing security risks associated with the one or more linear corridors using at least a portion of the context sensitive information;

identifying a location along the one or more linear corridors as a safe haven for the hazardous material transport, wherein the location is identified as a safe haven based at least in part on the assessed security risks associated with the one or more linear corridors and the location of the hazardous material transport; and

moving the hazardous material transport to the identified safe haven.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the context sensitive information includes information selected from a group comprising:

demographic information, transportation information, environmental information, and corridor asset information.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises determining one or more characteristics of the hazardous material transport.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein identifying a location along the one or more linear corridors as a safe haven for the hazardous material transport is based at least in part on the one or more characteristics of the hazardous material transport.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein identifying a location along the one or more linear corridors as a safe haven for the hazardous material transport further comprises assessing security risks associated with a route between the location of the hazardous material transport and the location along the one or more linear corridors.

18. A computerized system for facilitating moving hazardous material transports to safe havens in response to an event, the system comprising:

one or more data stores including data representative of one or more safe havens, the data including one or more characteristics of the one or more safe havens including a location for each of the safe havens;

a hazardous material transport location component for determining the location of at least one hazardous material transport; and

a safe haven selection component for selecting a safe haven from the one or more safe havens for the at least one hazardous material transport based at least in part on the location of the hazardous material transport and at least one characteristic of the one or more safe havens.

19. The computerized system of claim 18, wherein the computerized system further comprises a routing component for determining a route between the location of the at least one hazardous material transport and a safe haven selected for the at least one hazardous material transport.

20. One or more computer-readable media having a data structure embodied thereon, the data structure for facilitating the determination of a safe haven for a hazardous material transport, the data structure comprising:

a first data field containing data representative of an identification of a safe haven; and

a second data field containing data representative of at least one characteristic of the safe haven.